[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 342 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 342

To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to provide for regulation by 
the Federal Trade Commission of advertisements by air carriers, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 5, 1993

 Mr. Schumer introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly 
     to the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Public Works and 
                             Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to provide for regulation by 
the Federal Trade Commission of advertisements by air carriers, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Airfare Advertising Reform Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. FEDERAL REGULATION OF ADVERTISEMENTS BY AIR CARRIERS.

    (a) Regulation by FTC.--Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade 
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45(a)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph:
    ``(4) Notwithstanding paragraph (2), the Commission is empowered 
and directed to prevent air carriers and foreign air carriers subject 
to the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 from disseminating, or causing 
dissemination of, any advertisement in violation of paragraph (1), 
including any false, misleading, or deceptive advertisement.
    (b) Amendment to Federal Aviation Act.--Section 411 of the Federal 
Aviation Act of 1958 (49 U.S.C App. 1381) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a) by striking ``The Board'' and 
        inserting ``Subject to subsection (c), the Board''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(c) Limitation With Respect to Advertisements by Air Carriers.--
No action may be taken under this section with respect to a violation 
of this section if the violation also constitutes a violation of 
section 5(a)(1) of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Federal 
Trade Commission is empowered to take an action with respect to the 
violation pursuant to section 5(a)(4) of such Act.''.

SEC. 3. ADVERTISEMENT OF RATES FOR AIR TRANSPORTATION BY AIR CARRIERS.

    (a) Issuance of Final Rule.--Not later than 90 days after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Trade Commission shall 
pursuant to section 18(a)(1) of the Federal Trade Commission Act issue 
a final rule which identifies methods of advertising rates for air 
transportation by an air carrier or foreign air carrier which 
constitute unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting 
commerce (within the meaning of section 5(a)(1) of such Act).
    (b) Minimum Requirement.--The final rule issued pursuant to 
subsection (a) shall at a minimum provide that disseminating, or 
causing dissemination of, any written advertisement for air 
transportation between 2 points by an air carrier or foreign air 
carrier which contains a rate for such air transportation shall 
constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice in or affecting 
commerce (within the meaning of section 5(a)(1) of the Federal Trade 
Commission Act) unless--
            (1) the advertisement clearly and conspicuously discloses 
        all material restrictions governing the offer to provide such 
        air transportation at such rate;
            (2) such rate includes all costs for obtaining such air 
        transportation (including any taxes, fees, fuel, and other 
        surcharges and mandatory charges) and is the round trip rate 
        (if purchase of a round trip ticket is required for obtaining 
        such rate); and
            (3) the advertisement also contains (in print which is 
        adjacent to the print stating such rate and which is not 
        smaller than \1/4\ of the size of the print stating such rate) 
        the minimum number of seats per flight to which such rate 
        applies.
For the purposes of paragraph (3), such rule shall provide that the 
minimum number of seats referred to in such paragraph may be stated 
separately for flights occurring on different days of a week.

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